leaped with a frantic spring into the air, sheer over the precipice,
and into the foam beneath. His eyes glared as he shot into the void,
a great dark living mass against the white mist. Was he speared
on those terrible shafts of rock below, or was his life dashed out
in horrible crimson splashes against the cliffside? Or did he sink
into the reeling swirl of the foaming waters, and die more mercifully
in their steel-dark depths? I could not see. I saw only the flying
form dart through the mist like an arrow from a bow. I heard only
the appalling cry, like nothing earthly ever heard before; and I
woke in a panic, with hands tightly clasped, and my body damp with
moisture. It was but a dream--this awful picture; it was gone
as an image from a mirror, and I was awake, and gazing only upon
blank darkness.
--Atcham, Sept. 15, 1884
XXI. The Haunted Inn
I seemed in my vision to be on a long and wearisome journey, and to
have arrived at an Inn, in which I was offered shelter and rest. The
apartment given me consisted of a bedroom and parlour, communicating,
and furnished in an antique manner, everything in the rooms appearing
to be worm-eaten, dusty and out of date. The walls were bare and
dingy; there was not a picture or an ornament in the apartment.
An extremely dim light prevailed in the scene; indeed, I do not
clearly remember, whether, with the exception of the fire and a
nightlamp, the rooms were illumined at all. I seated myself in a
chair, by the hearth; it was late, and I thought only of rest.
But, presently, I became aware of strange things going on about me.
On a table in a corner lay some papers and a pencil. With a feeling
of indescribable horror I saw this pencil assume an erect position
and begin of itself to write on the paper, precisely as though an
invisible hand held and guided it. At the same time, small detonations
sounded in different parts of the room; tiny bright sparks appeared,
burst, and immediately expired in smoke. The pencil having ceased
to write, laid itself gently down, and taking the paper in my hand
I found on it a quantity of writing which at first appeared to me
to be in cipher, but I presently perceived that the words composing
it were written backwards, from right to left, exactly as one sees
writing reflected on a looking glass. What was written made a
considerable impression on me at the time, but I cannot now recall it.
I know, however, that the dominant feeling I experienced was one
of horror.
I called the owners of the inn and related to them what had taken
place. They received my statement with perfect equanimity, and
told me that in their house this was the normal state of things,
of which, in fact, they were extremely proud; and they ended by
congratulating me as a visitor much favored by the invisible agencies
of the place.
"We call them our Lights," they said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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